AFL to sever sponsorship deal with Brunei airline over anti-gay laws
THE Australian Football League has announced it intends to sever a sponsorship deal between its European arm of the league and Royal Brunei Airlines.
The news comes after AFL Europe announced last month that it had reached a “groundbreaking partnership” with Brunei’s state airline to fly players between Melbourne and London.
ABC News subsequently raised questions last week regarding Sultan Hassanal Bolkia’s ownership of the airline and his approval of harsh Sharia laws in his country.
When the laws are implements in 2015, a death penalty by stoning will be enforced as punishment for gay sex and adultery.
News of the laws resulted in a global backlash, with many celebrities joining activists calling for a boycott of global businesses owned by the Sultan, whose family fortune is estimated at $13 billion.
According to ABC News, AFL Europe receives financial assistance from AFL and promotes the sport in 22 European nations.
In response to the questions raised, AFL released a statement that said its European arm did not know about Brunei’s new laws.
“These laws are counter to everything the AFL stands for in regards to inclusion and diversity,” the statement said.
An AFL spokesman told ABC News they were now working with AFL Europe to terminate the agreement, “possibly within days, at most within a few weeks”.
The AFL should never ever sponsor a country/corporation that legally jails and/or gives the death penalty to LGBTI people!
QANTAS has not ended the sponsorship with EMIRATES either – just to clarify too!
Good call!
It isn’t illegal to be gay In Abu Dhabi (home of Etihad), Dubai, or the other Emirates of the UAE. If it was, who would work as flight attendants?
Strict Sharia Law does not exist in the UAE, nor many Islamic countries. If the largest-populated Islamic country in the world did, then trashy times on Kuta Beach would end up with every Aussie in a Balinese prison with Renae Lawrence.
Also, if AFL can’t play at Etihad Stadium, I guess the gays shouldn’t have gone to see Justin Timberlake, Mariah Carey or Taylor Swift there. Just putting it in perspective.
It may not be illegal to be gay in the UAE but same-sex sexual activity is and can be punishable by death. Iran and Saudi Arabia regularly execute gay men found to have engaged in sexual activity. The Saudis regularly conduct public executions, some of them beheadings.
Bali is haven for gay men from other parts of Indonesia as the native Balinese are predominately Hindu and relatively tolerant of homosexuality. There are, however, provinces of Indonesia, such as Aceh, where Sharia based laws are enforced by ‘morality police’ who patrol the streets.
Abu Dhabi still has the death penalty on its books for any homosexual acts. Iran hangs us, and Saudi Arabia where our troops are based, hacks off the head of anyone found guilty of a homosexual act. Surely the AFL should not be supporting the terrorism against anyone let alone GLBTI Australians. Do some research before you post. The AFL should not be promoting such an airline created by Royal Decree as it legitimises the ugly values of the owner. Etihad is not an airline the AFL should be promoting. If a player hung out with bad apples, the AFL would be all over them, but the AFL does not live up to the values it sets for players. How is supporting and promoting the values of a country who has police based at hospital emergency departments, to charge women who have been raped, or assaulted by their husband, or a country the executes gay people, a good for the game of football? Clearly the the owners of the stadium need to dump a sponsor that brings damage to the docklands stadium. What next, the Klu Klux Klan stadium?
Terrorism, should never by supported by the AFL, and if it is not good enough to stone us to death, why support another countries airline that executes and imprisons gay people? The AFL, who struggles with mysogony, racism, and homophobia, is hardly genuine if it does not hold itself to the standards it expects of players.
Every time the ball is bounced at Etihad Stadium, the AFL promotes an airline created by Royal decrea, in a county that still has the death penalty on its books for people suspected of being homosexual. While I congratulate the AFL board for dumping Royal Brunei Airlines, it makes a mockery of the stance against homophobia, when Eitihad Airlines is promoted. The AFL should be looking at choosing another stadium, as the death of homosexuals in Dubai, or any other country that practices Sharia Law, should never be supported or promoted by the AFL. If the AFL can take a stand against Royal Brunei Airlines, then surely it can take a stand against the owner of the Docklands Stadium. At least the AFL has done some soul searching, I hope they continue.